Unlock PDF files you are authorized to open and drop the password for good
Enter the password you already have, check the document, and export a copy with no password on it. The file and the password stay on this device.
Choose a password-protected PDF
One file · up to 80 MB · PDF bytes are checked on this device
Processed on this device
Selecting and processing files stays in this browser.
Checking offline readiness
Offline availability is confirmed after this tool loads.
Why there is no daily limit, and no upload
How to remove a password from a PDF
- Open the protected PDF. PDFCheetah will ask for its password.
- Enter the password you already have, and check the pages that appear.
- Select Remove the password, then Download.
You need the password, and the right to use it
This tool removes a password you already know from a document you are authorized to use. It does not recover, guess or work around a password you do not have, and there is nothing here that would — a document whose password you cannot supply cannot be opened by PDFCheetah any more than by any other reader.
Nothing is uploaded, including the password
The document is decrypted by your own browser. The password is used as the key for that one job, is held only while this page is open, and is cleared along with your local files when you finish. No copy of either reaches a server, because there is no server involved in the work.
What you get back
A new copy with no encryption in it, checked before you are offered it: PDFCheetah opens the result again here and confirms it needs no password. Your original file is not modified. Printing and copying restrictions are removed along with the password, because they are stored inside the encryption rather than beside it.
Current limitations
PDFs protected with a certificate rather than a password are not supported, and neither is one revision of the standard handler that Adobe published as a draft and later replaced — those are refused by name rather than silently mishandled. Always verify signed, certified, tagged, form-heavy, or archival PDFs in the reader used by the recipient.
Common questions
- Is my PDF uploaded to remove its password?
- No. The document is decrypted in your browser and the unlocked copy is saved on this device. Neither the file nor the password is ever sent anywhere, because there is no server involved in the work.
- Can PDFCheetah open a PDF whose password I do not have?
- No, and nothing here tries to. This tool removes a password you already know from a document you are authorized to use. A password you cannot supply leaves the document as unreadable to PDFCheetah as to any other reader.
- Which kinds of PDF encryption are supported?
- The password-based standard security handler at every revision in common use: AES-256, AES-128 and the older RC4 schemes, including documents whose objects are packed into compressed object streams. PDFs protected with a certificate rather than a password are not supported.
- What happens to printing and copying restrictions?
- They are removed along with the password, because the PDF format stores them inside the encryption rather than beside it. If you need them back, Password protect can set a new password and a fresh set of permissions on the unlocked copy.
- Is my original file changed?
- No. You get a new copy with no password on it and the original is left exactly as it was, still protected. Before the download appears, PDFCheetah opens the new copy here and confirms it needs no password.
- Will a signed or certified PDF still validate afterwards?
- Possibly not. Decryption rewrites every stream in the document, which is enough to break a signature that covered the original bytes. Check any signed, certified, tagged or archival PDF in the reader your recipient uses before relying on it.